Over the Fence
by TheNameIsErronBlack
Summary: Oliver and Iris team-up to help Barry come to terms with his feelings for Caitlin. SnowBarry/Snowallen


Oliver found himself in a rather precarious and unusual situation.

The mission had been successful, which was the most important thing. He and Barry had managed to capture The Riddler and deliver him to Gotham City to be dealt with by the Arkham Asylum administration without a single casualty. The only problem was some mild property damage and that Barry had been hurled into a berserker-esque rage and threatened to beat Edward Nygma to death after he swore to kill Caitlin Snow and everyone who ever worked for Mercury Labs. He gripped Barry by the shoulder only to receive an shockingly powerful back fist to the face, which left a stinging sensation on his cheek which had still not subsided. It was a blow far more powerful than Oliver thought Barry was capable of delivering. When the two returned to Star Labs, Barry immediately went off to some unknown corner of the lab, leaving Oliver to regale Team Flash with the debriefing, though he made sure to leave out the berserk rage portion of the story. After surviving on an island and spending years fighting all manner of genocidal psychopaths, Oliver thought he could be ready for anything, but this left him completely inert. Typically, he was the one who received sagely advice from Diggle, Laurel, or Thea. He didn't dish it out. Only a perfunctory appraisal of the Team Flash roster was needed to deduce that there was only one person rational and emotionally stable enough to assist Oliver with his current predicament.

"Iris, can I speak with you?" Oliver waited until the others were otherwise distracted to usher Iris away from prying ears.

"Of course, mister Queen."

Sure, Oliver never had to deal with actually having superpowers, but he knew the tribulations of being a superhero, and threatening loved ones was a rather sore spot for him, but he had no idea Barry was willing to beat supervillains to death. "Can you keep a secret?"

Iris cocked a quizzical eyebrow at his query.

"About Barry, I mean."

"Well, there's not much I don't know about Barry, but yes, I can keep a secret."

He was no stranger to duplicity, but this was justified in that he was only trying to help his friend. "Barry and I managed to take down Nygma without much of a problem, but before we brought him back he swore vengeance against every past, present, and future employee of Mercury Labs. When he specifically mentioned Caitlin, Barry started beating him like a man possessed. I managed to pull him off, but not before he hammered me in the face."

Iris gave a small laugh and pointed at his cheek. "I was wondering where that came fro-" She halted upon receiving a glare from Oliver that pierced into the very depths of her soul. "I apologize. I know Barry was upset, I just didn't know it was that bad."

"I hate to impose, but I was hoping you would be able to...talk to him about this. Feelings, particularly when it comes to women, aren't exactly my specialty."

She gave another small chuckle. "Can do. Most of the time Barry just needs someone to help him talk it out. You may have noticed that he can be a bit pig-headed at times."

For some reason, Oliver found a number of parallels between Iris and Laurel. Both were capable, dependable, and intelligent. Perhaps he could introduce the two to each other some time later, but in the moment he was just glad that Barry had a grounded voice among the super-geniuses of Star Labs. "Comes with the territory of being a superhero."

* * *

Anticipating that Barry would reject any attempt at connection, Iris made sure to have a bottle of ice cold lemonade as a peace offering. She correctly deduced that Barry was sulking in one of the many abandoned wings of Star Labs, standing over a desk with his head hung in shame. She placed it in front of him as an offering of peace.

"Hey."

"Hey." He despondently returned to her.

Many of their recent conversations started that way. Barry's lack of interest in continuing informed Iris that the bulk of the work rested on her shoulders.

"Oliver tells me you lost your cool with The Riddler."

He turned to look at her for a brief moment before his face contorted into an expression somewhere between indignation and disbelief. "Yes. I did. He threatened people and I had to put some fear into him. That's all it was."

"You punched Oliver in the face. Pretty hard, actually."

He sucked in his lips. "It was the heat of the moment."

She brought her arms to her chest. "Well, I know plenty of meta-humans who've threatened to destroy the planet and you didn't have to put fear into them. The only difference here is that none of them specifically referenced harming Caitlin Snow."

For all the years she had known him, it was readily apparent to Iris that Barry was reasonably adept at suppressing his emotions from outsiders, the altercation with The Riddler obviously excluded. That being the case, Iris was naturally tuned in with Barry's mindset and could pick up on the subtle hints concerning his well-being others would completely ignore. Even with his super speed, he couldn't hide the way his face twitched when Iris mentioned that last extraneous detail. She knew now was the time to strike.

"I...would've done the exact same if he had threatened any of you."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"Even Harry? Meta-humans threaten him with vaporization every five minutes."

The extended bit of silent confirmed Iris's victory in that portion of the argument. Really, Oliver only confirmed what she had been suspecting for quite some time. The stolen glances, the awkward fumbling whenever they would both reach for something, the blushing, the two were like two incredibly dorky, socially awkward Shakespeare characters bound by fate to unite but kept apart by their own blindspots. A sly grin made its way onto Iris's face as she continued. "You know, there's nothing wrong with admitting that you're into Caitlin."

He dodged her scrutiny, a dash of red painting his face. "Caitlin is my friend and I like all my friends. Because she is my friend."

Truly impenetrable logic, Iris thought. The way simply bringing up the topic of his infatuation with Star Labs' resident biologist was enough to make Barry squirm made it an immutable truth that Barry was afflicted by a bad case of puppy love. "I mean, just think about it. She's smart, she's cool with you being a superhero, she gets your dorky sense of humor."

He rubbed the back of his neck, still avoiding her gaze. "I guess." A degree of strength had been lost from his voice.

Perhaps it was cruel, but she admitted that there was something perversely amusing about messing with Barry about his schoolboy crush, especially when considering that Caitlin almost certainly felt the same way. She could've set her plan in motion at that point, but she wanted to get a bit more mileage out of this. She waited until Barry was in the process of returning his cup to the surface of his desk to unleash her secret weapon. "She's cute, too."

Almost immediately upon placing the cup down, Barry brought it straight back to his mouth for another drink. Iris had quickly caught onto the fact that Barry would always, no matter what, take a sip of whatever drink was available when he experienced a large amount of stress in a small time frame. It took all of Iris's willpower not to guffaw at the sight. Here was Barry Allen, superhero and forensic investigator, made an anxious mess because of a pretty girl.

"I guess." He made a Herculean effort to appear nonchalant.

"You don't think Caitlin's pretty?"

After taking a moment to regain his composure and conveniently forgetting Iris's inquiry, Barry continued his defense. "Well, I mean, you might be right about all those things, but you can't forget that she never listens to what I have to say," This time he actually turned to face Iris to drive the point home. "She's always demeaning me and undercutting my victories, and she treats me like I'm the bad guy whenever I get hurt. Caitlin has a ton of negative characteristics, even if she is my friend."

As a joke, Iris placed her finger above her lip and pretended to consider the mysteries of the universe for a moment. "So you're saying that you do have the hots for her?"

Barry regaled in shock. "Are you listening at all?"

Iris continued regardless. "Barry, do you remember your AP Biology lab partner, Stephanie Brown?"

He squinted at her. "What does she have to do with this?"

She beamed at him. "Because I do. I remember she was smart, cute, and she talked down to you and ordered you around all the time. I also remember that you were super into her because you're really into that type of girl."

With that, she checked the time on an adjacent digital clock and made her way back to the main wing of Star Labs. If all went according to plan, everything should be coming together at this exact time. Also as she planned, Barry was not far behind.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

Not far outside of Barry's domain, Iris just so happened to encounter Caitlin Snow.

"Oh, hey, Caitlin!" She greeted the scientist with a hug. "So great to see you. How are you doing?"

Caitlin could only purse her lips and squint. "You told me to meet you here."

Iris feigned confusion. "Did I?" She gave a perplexed expression back to Caitlin. "Oh! I did, that's right!" She turned and hurled her arm forth like a magician presenting the ultimate magic trick. "Well, Barry here has something to tell you. He's actually been meaning to tell you for a while now, he just thinks now is the right time."

Predictably, Caitlin's eyes went wide while Barry's face burned like a Christmas ornament. After several interminable seconds, Iris shattered the silence. "Alright, I've had enough. You two have been doing this dance for too long. Caitlin: Barry is hopelessly in love with you. Barry: Caitlin has desperately been wishing that you would make a move," She concluded with a final satisfied glance at the two. "I'll leave you two to talk about that."

With a smile that threatened to explode off her face, Iris left the two lovebirds to awkwardly trip over their own words. She made enough to distance to give the illusion of having disappeared while still being within range of decent audio quality.

Every time Barry thought he had the confidence to speak, it dashed away from him like a speedster. Caitlin, similarly, rubbed her arm with the opposite and bit her lip, completely uncertain of how to continue.

"So," Caitlin squeaked out. "Is..that, uh, true? What Iris said, I mean."

"I mean, kinda. Only if-if you would like it. I don't want to impos-"

"Yes," Apparently the confirmation had injected Caitlin with a superpowered amount of confidence, because she was able to silence Barry and profess her feelings with assured finality. "I would like that very much."

* * *

"I assumed as much. His head is more in the game and he seems much happier. My only question is: do they really think they're being slick about it?"

It had been about a month since Barry and Caitlin had officially became a 'thing', and Oliver had decided to make a quick check-in with Iris since Team Arrow would be hanging around Star Labs for the next few hours. Someone referring to himself as Doctor Skeleton specifically requested that both The Flash and Green Arrow appear, or he would set off explosions all over the world.

"They're obviously trying to keep quiet, but I'm fairly certain everyone in Central City figured it out ages ago," Iris glanced over to witness Caitlin showing something to Barry on her computer terminal while Barry leaned just a bit closer than simple friendship would permit. "You and Barry have all those super powers and years of training, but sometimes you need regular people to help you win battles."

Oliver smiled. "Couldn't agree more."


End file.
